1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a graphic process device such as a CAD system, etc. and a program storage medium storing a program used to realize the graphic process device, and more specifically to a technology of automatically assembling a three-dimensional model, and forming the correspondence among two- and three-dimensional data of a designed plane/space (hereinafter referred to as ‘view’).
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, common machines and buildings are designed by the CAD system from the step of drawing figures using a drafter.
A two-dimensional CAD has been developed as an electronic function of drawing figures which have conventionally been drawn by a drafter (the two-dimensional CAD in the present invention contains an application for drawing the shape of an object referred to as a drawing tool in addition to a common two-dimensional CAD). The designing process by the two-dimensional CAD is performed while a line drawing process is performed on a two-dimensional plane such as a 3-view figure, etc. When a designing process is performed on the two-dimensional plane, the shape of a part of a unit and the three-dimensional partial placement position are represented separately by a plurality of figures (plane figures) such as a front view, a side view, a sectional view, etc. Therefore, there can be the inconsistent representation of a three-dimensional geometric shape. As a result, the designing process starts with an important portion (important parts and figures) with some parts remaining obscure at the initial stage of the designing process, and the process is gradually performed on detailed portions for consistency. Thus, a flexible designing process can be performed, and the process is frequently adopted.
Figures of machines, etc. come in various sizes such as figures of basic parts, a set of figures used for a combination of parts, figures showing final products, etc. In the two-dimensional CAD, these figures sequentially become large in size by referring to figures of smaller parts.
FIG. 1 shows the correspondence of data in the conventional CAD.
In FIG. 1, views A1, A2, B1, and B2 show the design plane of two-dimensional data, and show the plan view (A1 and B1) and the front view (A2 and B2) of the units A and B. Each of the design planes is configured by referring to other smaller design planes, and the data is hierarchically structured. The data is configured by the link of the data of configuring a design plane of a set of referred-from and referred-to units, and the data of the parts in the smallest unit. For example, the view A1 is configured by the link to the data of the views B1 of a child unit B1 and C1.
With the proceeding of a designing process on a two-dimensional design plane, a number of editing operations are performed on the placement positions and the shapes of common parts represented in a plurality of figures. However, these editing operations for related process cannot be performed over a plurality of views, and they are limited in improving the design quality and efficiency.
As shown in FIG. 1, in the views of the same unit, there is no information about the correspondence between the two-dimensional design plane A1 and the two-dimensional design plane A2, but the data is stored as independent in the hierarchical structure. The data of each view is stored in the respective storage files such as a front view, a plan view, etc.
The two-dimensional CAD can have the function of generating a shape of a projection line, etc. as the support function of setting the correspondence between views of a unit, but the function cannot edit the shape over a plurality of views. For example, since the structure of one part cannot be recognized over plural views, graphic data cannot be directly used, but ancillary data has to be generated by a user drawing a figure using a projection line while referring to the views, switching the views, and amending the positions and shapes of the parts to make amendments not only to one view but also to other views when the positions and shapes of a part are amended over a plurality of views.
There has been a system of a hierarchical structure (parentage) of data having a parts structure. However, since there is no structure in which data of each view is related to each other for one unit, each view has an independent hierarchical data structure as shown in FIG. 1. Therefore, when placement positions are amended or a hierarchical structure is generated or changed in one view, corresponding amending processes are to be made to the data of other views, thereby requiring troublesome operations.
In addition, since the three-dimensional CAD for processing a three-dimensional shape of each part or unit as a three-dimensional model can generate a three-dimensionally consistent shape, the resultant design quality can be improved. However, a complicated and intensive process is required to generate and edit (modeling). a three-dimensional model.
A three-dimensional design space AS and BS shown in FIG. 1 indicates the three-dimensional work space of the units A and B. For a simple configuration, two-dimensional data is directly converted into the three-dimensional data. However, when a set of figures are processed for a unit formed by several number of parts, a three-dimensional model in a three-dimensional work space is generated by the designer sequentially assembling a three-dimensional model of the smallest part. For example, a three-dimensional model in a three-dimensional design space AS is generated by manually generating a three-dimensional model BS of the unit B after determining the placement position while checking the consistency of the three-dimensional models DS and ES of the units D and E in the three-dimensional work space, and then combining the three-dimensional model of the unit B with the three-dimensional model CS of the unit C on the three-dimensional work space. In assembling parts, three-dimensional parts have to be placed one by one in the three-dimensional space while setting the conditions for matching in plane, point, axis, etc., thereby requiring a very intensive process when a large three-dimensional parts are assembled. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the number of parts is small, but a set of figures in an actual case may require several thousand parts for which very complicated and intensive operations are performed.
In the designing process performed using the three-dimensional model, parts can be assembled at product level or unit level, and the interference between parts can be confirmed, thereby improving the efficiency in designing (modeling) in part units. However, since the procedure of generating a model indicating the shape of a part is much complicated, and since a consistent shape in a plane view such as a front view, a side view, etc., a designing process for a machine at a designing stage of a set of figures and unit figures in which a plurality of units are simultaneously designed, a modeling process performed in a complicated procedure lowers the design efficiency.
The two-dimensional/three-dimensional cooperative CAD for processing both two-dimensional and three-dimensional data in cooperation has been developed based on the idea of efficiently performing a designing process with the two-dimensional CAD capable of flexibly performing a designing process as necessary or a three-dimensional CAD capable of generating consistent data adopted as necessary to solve the above mentioned problems.
However, the current two-dimensional/three-dimensional cooperative CAD does not have the system of generating three-dimensional data used in the three-dimensional CAD by using two-dimensional data used in the two-dimensional CAD, or the system of having two-dimensional data cooperatively used with the three-dimensional data at the parts structure level. Therefore, the cooperation realized by the current two-dimensional/three-dimensional cooperative CAD is only the cooperation system in which non-structured two-dimensional data is transferred to a three-dimensional CAD. Therefore, the current two-dimensional/three-dimensional cooperative CAD is realized only cooperation that the two-dimensional data in the sectional shape for generating three-dimensional data is transferred from a two-dimensional CAD system to a three-dimensional CAD system, two-dimensional data is transferred to a three-dimensional CAD system for using the data as reference data for determining an placement position, and three-dimensional data is developed on a two-dimensional work plane (such as a front view, a side view, or a sectional view, etc.).
Therefore, although there is electronic data configured using three-dimensional data to assemble a three-dimensional part such as a set of generated figures and/or unit figures, a designer cannot directly utilize this electronic data. Therefore, when a three-dimensional model is generated, the designer displays the data on the screen, assembles them into a three-dimensional part while viewing the screen, or fetches the information about one view to place and move three-dimensional parts one by one.
In addition, during the designing process, a two-dimensional design plane is frequently switched into a three-dimensional design space or vice versa for efficiency, but actually, only the two-dimensional CAD, or the three-dimensional CAD for a detailed designing part is used at the designing stage.
Thus, the conventional two-dimensional CAD, three-dimensional CAD, and two-dimensional cooperative CAD have the following problems.
(1) In the conventional two-dimensional/three-dimensional CAD, when a three-dimensional model is generated based on a set of views or a product figures of a certain scale, three-dimensional data is generated at each part figure level independent of a two-dimensional assembly figures. Then, the designer has to assemble the data in the three-dimensional design space.(2) A plurality of two-dimensional design planes and three-dimensional design spaces are used for one part, unit, or assembly state. However, the current two-dimensional/three-dimensional CAD does not define the three-dimensional space correspondence for each two-dimensional figure. For example, if each of the three views is individually generated, the name of a view such as a front view, a side view, etc., refers only to the name of a data storage plane, but does not refer to the correspondence between two-dimensional figures such as three views, etc., or between a two-dimensional figure and a three-dimensional model. Furthermore, when a set of three-dimensional figures are generated, although there are corresponding electronic data such as a corresponding three-dimensional figure, etc., they can only be used as a display reference as reference data, and can not be used directly for assembling a three-dimensional part.(3) Since there is no correspondence between a two-dimensional design plane and a three-dimensional design space, it is difficult of impossible to frequently switching between the two-dimensional design plane and the three-dimensional design space as necessary during the designing process.(4) In the three-dimensional CAD, it is a troublesome process to perform an arranging operation on a three-dimensional part.(5) The data of a parts figure can be placed in an assembly figure, but there is no system of recognizing each of the two-dimensional plan view and the three-dimensional model as belonging to one part. Therefore, it is not possible to know how far the influence of figure elements representing one part or unit reaches. Accordingly, the three-dimensional consistency in the correspondence about part position, etc. cannot be managed.